1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a container assembly. More particularly, the present invention relates to a container assembly including a medical waste disposal container for use with a portable carrier tray for medical instruments.
2. Description of Related Art
Typical blood collection procedures require phlebotomists to organize medical supplies, such as needles, holders, tubes, and bandages, in a transportable utility carrier. The utility carrier typically has a handle, includes an opening at the top, and may have multiple sections or compartments to aid in the organization of medical supplies. The utility carrier allows for convenient transportation of medical supplies.
Typically, a phlebotomist carries a portable tray, such as a utility carrier, to a patient's bedside where the phlebotomist performs the necessary procedure, such as a blood collection procedure. When the required necessary tubes are collected and the needle is withdrawn from the patient's arm, the phlebotomist immediately discards the used blood collection device into a container at the immediate site in order to prevent re-use of the device and to protect from potentional biohazards.
Such used devices, commonly referred to as sharps, are often discarded in a small medical waste container that fits onto the utility tray. Recently, however, there is a trend in the industry to use blood collection assemblies that incorporate disposable needle holders used in combination with disposable needles, and recent changes in regulations and safety procedures are calling for the needle holder to be discarded as well. The use of such assemblies involves significantly more medical waste being discarded into medical waste containers. As such, portable waste containers carried with utility trays are oftentimes too small to contain the disposable assemblies, or cannot contain a significant amount of disposable waste, therefore resulting in frequent changing of the disposable waste container.
An alternate medical waste container commonly used is the type mounted on the wall, such as in the patient's room. However, the use of such wall mounted containers to discard used blood collection devices in such procedures increases the risk of exposure to biohazards, since the waste container is remotely located from the site of use of the medical device, requiring transport of the used device to the remotely located waste container. Another commonly used medical waste container is relatively large and is primarily intended for lab use where it is placed on the floor or table. Such large lab waste containers involve similar exposure risks, due to the remote location of the waste container from the site of use.
Therefore, a need exists for a device in which to transport medical supplies to the patient for use in medical procedures while allowing for the convenient use, safe transportation, and disposing of volumes of hazardous waste, such as used sharps, at the primary point of care.